Friday, September 28, 2007

First, the babies will be staying put, for now. They are going to have another ophthalmologist check them on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully neither will need any immediate treatment and neither will have to go anywhere. If one or both do need treatment, then they would get moved to another hospital. We are REALLY hoping they won't need treatment!

Will has had an exciting morning. Big boy got his first bottle!!! I got to feed him his first bottle with 5 mL in it. He did awesome. He kept his stats stable the whole time. He didn't desat or drop his heart rate and he didn't choke. He sucked it down in a couple minutes!! He will get one small bottle each day to help him learn to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing.

Lindy is having a big day too. Her endotracheal tube is a little small for her and therefore she has air leaks. In rounds today they talked about putting in a larger tube. Since they have to take one tube out, they decided to let her try CPAP. They gave her a dose of steriods and she will get two more doses. Hopefully this will help her out. It would be so great to get her off that vent. It's been so neat seeing Will without all the stuff on his face and it would be so fun to see Lindy like that too.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

This week has flown by so far. For the most part it has been good. The biggest news is that Will has continued to do well with the CPAP. So well that on Monday they allowed him to do two, two-hour nasal cannula trials. This is where he wears the small nasal prongs that just provide him oxygen. Like the little old people that carry oxygen around all the time. He did really well with his trials so on Tuesday they allowed him to have a few three hour trials. Again he continued to do well. Finally on Wednesday they said he can stay on nasal cannula! It is so exciting because we can see his face and hair now! They can still put him on CPAP if he seems to be getting tired and needs a little bit of help.

Lindy has continued to move along as well. Her biggest news is that her feeds are condensed to 21 mL over 30 minutes. Then she doesn't eat for 2 1/2 hours. It's almost like getting a bottle (but through a tube into her stomach!) She is tolerating them so well. She continues to grow each day but she is still on the ventilator. Her settings are low but her oxygen requirements are all over the place.

The not so good news is that the babies may have to take a field trip next week. Both babies have been having their eyes checked for retinopathy of prematurity, something that can happen when babies are provided oxygen. They both have Stage II, out of five stages. At this point they just need to be checked weekly. They were checked yesterday and need to be checked next Wednesday. Unfortunately the pediatric opthamologist will not be here next week. He says they have to be checked because the disease can progress rapidly. There is only one pediatric opthamologist at Brenners. He wants Will and Lindy moved to another hospital next week so they can be checked and if necessary can receive treatment. They will only be gone for the most a week, they will come back to Brenners. They are also moving two other babies who are a little worse than Will and Lindy. That is the plan for now. We actually don't know where they will go. Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Charlotte would be the options. The worse case scenario is that the babies would end up in different hospitals. Apparently Duke and Chapel Hill are almost always full and hard to get into. The doctors will be figuring everything out today and hopefully will let us know when and where. We will do and go where we have to save their sight, but it is going to suck!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of Lindy and Will.

Will sucked his thumb for the first time this week! Will is enjoying the nasal cannula so much that he is smiling about it!Here is Lindy, chilling on the vent. She got that crazy IV out of her head yesterday and it looks so much better! Lindy taking an afternoon nap.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

I know this website is dedicated to the babies, but did any of you catch the Wake Forest versus Maryland game on Saturday! What a game. I actually drug myself out of the NICU and went to the game. I'm glad my time away from the babies ended up being so exciting!

Anyway, back to the babies. It was another quiet weekend. Except for Drew and his first poopy diaper experience! He was changing Lindy's diaper Saturday evening and it went from a wet diaper to a poopy diaper in the midst of the diaper change. Four diapers later there was poop all over Lindy and the inside of her isolette :) Drew stuck with it as long as he could and finally had to call in reinforcements from the nurse. I unfortunately missed the entire thing. It was his first poopy diaper, but the nurse said that it was worth 10 poopy diapers!

The babies are doing well. There really have not been many changes lately. The only major change is that today they started condensing Lindy's feeds. Right now their feedings are on a continuous pump. They will now start giving her certain amount of feeds over a shorter period of time. For instance, instead of getting 21 mL over 3 hours, she will get 21 mL of two hours and then have one hour off. They will eventually go to 21 mL over 1 hour. They try to get her to where she can eventually eat a bottle every couple hours. It might seem confusing, but it is a good step in the right direction.

Here are some new pictures of the cutest babies EVER!!!

The FIRST picture of the babies TOGETHER!!!!!

I was holding Lindy and Drew was holding Will. We got them as close together as we could, seeing as they are still attached to plenty of cords and IV's and tubes, and whatever else! This is the closest they have been since they were in the womb!

Will, with the CPAP blocking most of his face!

A picture taken during Lindy's second attempt off of the ventilator. Will and his first camo outfit. He is all ready to go fishing and hunting with Papa! Sweet Lindy in a pretty new outfit.Here is a view of downtown Winston-Salem. This is the window we look out of from the hospital. It's a pretty picture that I couldn't pass up.Our second family portrait. Saturday was a great day. We got to each hold a baby and then go watch Wake beat Maryland in overtime. They can't get much better than that! Our babies LOVE to lay with their hands up around their face. The nurses try to swaddle the babies and they always get their hands out and up to their heads! Wide-eyed Lindy in a pretty pink outfit. Peaceful Will, still chugging along on CPAP! It's been over a week! Will wore his first collared shirt today and he looked so spiffy. He was wearing his Sunday best. He was ready to go to church with Daddy. He can't wait to meet all his friends at Palmyra UMC!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Since Lindy's reintubation, things have been very quiet. Yesterday marked one week off the ventilator for Will. We are so proud of him! He has to be reminded to breath every once in awhile, but overall he has done great!

Lindy is enjoying her ventilator. It is a lot easier for someone (or something) else to do all the work! We'll eventually get her off too.

The babies are both over three pounds now. Will is 3 pound 11 ounces today and Lindy is 3 pounds 2 ounces. You can really tell that Will is packing on the weight. He has started to really fill out. Lindy still looks pretty small. Will's preemie clothes are starting to fit pretty good and some of Lindy's still swallow her! I can't believe my one pound babies are now over three pounds!!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Lindy was reintubated (put back on the ventilator) around 11pm last night. She was requiring too much oxygen support. She'll probably be on the ventilator another week and they will probably try again. This will give her time to grow and get bigger. It took Will three times so maybe the next time will be it for Lindy too!

Will on the other hand is rocking on CPAP! The ventilator is just a bad thought for him now!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Lindy was extubated today around 1pm. She did really well with the transition and had a good afternoon, sans ventilator. We are hoping she continues to do well. She has to try and keep up with Brother Will. Will is still off the ventilator; it's been over three full days! We think, we hope, that this means he is done with his ventilator! We're are keeping our fingers crossed!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

First off, Will does not have an infection! We were very happy to find that out. Since he did not have an infection, they decided to extubate him again on Friday. They took him off the ventilator at 1pm on Friday and has done well all weekend. He seems to be doing better this time than the last two times so we are hoping that this is it!

Miss Lindy is very close to being extubated, we are just waiting for her oxygen requirements to decrease a little. Her ventilator settings are very low, providing very little support, but for some reason she seems to need a little more oxygen. We think she will be extubated early this week. It would be great for this to be the week they both get off the ventilator!

Will weighed 3 lbs 3 oz yesterday and Lindy weighed 2 lbs 11oz. They are both eating now. Lindy was finally started and her feeds have been increasing slowly. She is up to about 4.5 mL per hour. Will was up to 7 mL per hour but he was producing too much stool out of his ostomy and therefore they had to decrease his feeds. They are really starting to put some weight on though!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Here are some recent pictures.

I don't know if you can see it very well, but Will got his hair brushed and he got his first ever part in his hair! The nurse said he was a big boy and needed a part!

Our Little Cowboy (sorry the picture is turned the wrong way)! Miss Lindy without the tape on her face! This is really the first time we've seen her without the tape on her face. Isn't she beautiful? Lindy was happy about something, she was smiling away. Although it's hard to catch in a picture! Sweet Baby Lindy, a picture taken while I was holding her one afternoon.

Miss Lindy and her favorite purple hat.

Will with NOTHING on his face!!!! Isn't he so cute?Another Will with nothing on his face. I caught the tail end of a smile! Unfortunately it was back to the CPAP, but look how cute he looks!!

Friday, September 14, 2007

The doctors had planned to extubate Will on Thursday, but Wednesday when they checked his abdomen it looked a little red and puffy, which could be a symptom of infection. So they put him on antibiotics and drew some blood cultures. We're still waiting to see if the cultures grow anything. Hopefully, they'll come back negative and they can start thinking again about taking him off the vent. Lindy has done really well in the last few days and there is talk of extubating her sometime soon.

On a brighter note, Drew got to hold Will for the first time on Thursday, while Jamie held Lindy. That means Pops has held both kids in one week, and is catching up with Mom in the baby-holding sweepstakes. They're so small, but so cute. They just nestle right down and go to sleep when we hold them. Next week when we hold them, we're going to wait until the nurses aren't looking, put Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls in their beds, and sneak 'em out of the NICU. Don't rat us out.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Today was a great day! Drew got to sit and hold Lindy for the first time today. It is the first time he has sat and held either of the babies! It took 44 days, but it was worth the wait! At the same time he was holding Lindy, I got to hold Will. We were side by side, holding our babies! It was so incredible. Both babies did really well the whole time. They really seemed to like being held. Of course Drew and I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread!

Monday, September 10, 2007

When I don't post that means there isn't too much going on. Which we really like! We have had a good string of quiet days and we hope it continues!

Both the babies are back on the ventilators and are doing well. They are both on pretty low ventilator settings. Will, and maybe Lindy, will probably be extubated again at the end of the week.

I was able to hold Will on Friday for the first time. We had been able to lift him up while the nurse changed out his blankets, but this time I got to sit in a chair and hold him. Although I loved it and was in hog heaven, I do not know how much Will enjoyed it! He was desatting most of the time! At least one of us had a good time!

Today I got to hold Lindy for the second time. I can't even begin to tell you how jealous Drew is getting! I held her for over an hour and she did awesome! Unlike her brother, she seemed to really enjoy being held!

Both babies are now able to wear real clothes! The preemie outfits I have for them are too big, but we still put them on the kids. It feels like a big step to see them in real clothes and I have enjoyed getting to pick out an outfit and dress them.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

The kids got some good breathing exercise off the ventilator, but both have had to be reintubated. Lindy was put back on the vent around 5:45pm Friday evening, and we just got a call from the hospital telling us that they were putting Will back on around 8:15am this morning. So they both have their milk mustaches back. Looks like they like to do things together.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

What an exciting day! Both Will and Lindy were extubated (taken off the ventilator) today! One was intentional and one was not!

Will's extubation was planned. He had been doing well on his ventilator settings and the doctors were ready to try again. They extubated him around 1pm today.

Lindy on the other hand, extubated herself this morning! Apparently she overheard us talking about Will's extubation and she decided she would like to try life without a ventilator too! We arrived at 9:30am this morning and the nurse said, "Do you notice anything different?" I looked at her and she was on CPAP, not the ventilator. They explained that she had turned her head one direction and ET tube stayed put. The tube came out and instead of reintubating her, they decided to try and see how she did on CPAP.

As of 10pm they are both still off the ventilator and doing well. We would love for both kids to stay off the ventilator, but we will have to wait and see. Their little bodies might get too tired!

Enjoy the pictures of their matching head gear (the stuff required for CPAP).

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Lindy went down for her PDA surgery today around 12pm and was back by 1:45pm. The surgeon said she did really well. They were able to do it laparoscopically. The surgeon is only one of 3 people in the country who does this surgery laparoscopically. He came back with pictures of her PDA before he put the staple in and after he put the staple in. He also gave us one of the staples to show us what he used. It's really tiny!

He said it will take about three days to really see how she responds to the surgery. We are hoping that it will really help her lungs and ventilator settings.

Miss Lindy has had a busy week with two surgeries. Hopefully she is DONE!! She has done great with them. She is a fighter!

Monday, September 3, 2007

We hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We had a nice weekend at the NICU. My parents were in town which was nice.

Lindy is scheduled for her PDA surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:30am. We are hoping that it will really get done tomorrow, it's been cancelled two other times! She has done well after having the reservoir put in on Friday. She was wide awake all weekend long. I think she might not have been feeling 100%. She seemed better today though, I hate that she has to go through everything again tomorrow.

Will has continued to do well. He was desatting a little more than normal this morning so they went up on his ventilator settings a little bit and that seemed to help. Other than being a little ornery today, he's had a good weekend. He is one sleepy boy! He sleeps all day long. I'm jealous!

Get ready for lots of pictures! Hope you enjoy them.

Drew holding Lindy on Labor Day.

Sweet Lindy. You can see her incision on the left side of her head. You can see a bump where the reservoir is. Jamie holding Will on Labor Day. Sweet Baby Will

We turned the kids into Demon Deacon fans on Saturday for their first game. They each had a Wake blanket in their bed, a yellow blanket on top of their isolettes, and their Wake socks on! We thought they might be good luck charms that would help Wake beat Boston College, but it didn't work out that way. We'll try again this weekend for the big Nebraska game.

Lindy and her Wake socks. Lindy's Game Day getup. Will had the same blankets in his bed. Will really enjoyed his first big game day.

Little Man

On Friday, before Lindy's surgery, I actually got to hold her! It was the first time I had held her. I had not even had the chance to pick her up. It was awesome! I got to sit in a chair and hold my baby girl for over an hour. Can you imagine having to wait over a month to hold your child? I wish I could have held her all day!

The happy family, although we are missing Will! Little Miss Lindy Sacked out Will. He always looks so comfortable in his bed!